Discuss the Politics, Economics, and Events of the New New York 23rd Congressional District (Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, (Eastern) Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, and Yates Counties)

Every year at work at a local manufacturer, we heard from a Human Resources spokesperson that the business could no longer afford increasing insurance costs. We would have to pay more. Then one year the CEO, presumably a Republican, explained that government could do nothing more to help the business than to take on the cost of employee insurance. A few years later President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act.

ACA addressed the issue of rising costs in several ways:

Near universal coverage

Preventative care

Spread the risk over the entire population with the “individual mandate.”

The rate of cost increases slowed.

Tom Reed later visited that company. He reported that management asked for lower taxes and decreased regulations. Healthcare wasn’t mentioned in Tom’s report. I have to wonder if company management was no longer concerned with healthcare costs, or did Tom neglect to mention this concern in his report. In my years at work there, I never heard complaints about taxes or regulations significantly impacting the business.

If the individual mandate is repealed, healthcare insurance premiums are expected to jump higher. Evidently, this is what our representative, Tom Reed, wants.

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About whungerford

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Contributor at NewNY23rd.com where we discuss the politics, economics, and events of the New New York 23rd Congressional District (Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, (Eastern) Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben,Tioga, Tompkins, and Yates Counties) Please visit and comment on whatever strikes your fancy.

3 Responses to Healthcare Annecdote

There has been a long string of anecdotal evidence supporting the hypothesis that Tom Reed does not have the interests of his constituents in mind when he votes.

I think that it is fair to say that the followers of this blog are well aware of Reed’s shortcomings. Each anecdote seems to represent preaching to the choir.

Recent discussions on this blog revolve around ideology. These discussions are happening while the Republicans in Congress, in a brilliant display of Swamp 101, rally around a bill which will skin the middle class. Again. And they’ve returned to Obacare repeal again, in an effort for a twofer. Reed is loving it.

There are four groups of entities in the US who can be taxed. The poor, the middle class, the rich and the corporations. Who are people, too for certain purposes.

The poor have no money. The well is dry.
Corporations are loaded, but have rigged the game to escape taxes.
The rich have most of the money. It is obscene what they have. 1% controls 1/2 of the wealth? Or is it a bigger percentage?
The middle class gets …. crumbs. But they no longer matter in Washington or to Reed, so it is they who will get hammered.

While this happens, how do we react? Limit social programs. Increase social programs. Expand health care. Limit health care. We fight among ourselves, name calling and hating while our pie gets smaller and smaller and smaller. We fight over the crumbs with our neighbors.

A variety of polls state that the majority of Americans support Obamacare and would like it expanded.

A variety of polls state that fewer than 30% of Americans support tax reform that impacts the middle class.

Yet the Republicans are ramming through a bill to gut Obamacare and rape the middle class.

I’ve engaged with a number of politicians during my life. I have NEVER seen anything like Tom Reed. He gives us lip service, but he is vey aware of who pays his bills. He votes accordingly.

He can be beaten. But not as long as we are separated by ideological barriers. Calling Democrats fascists and communists and calling Republicans fascists and Hitler accomplishes nothing. We are all in the same boat. We need to start rowing together. We need to get smart.

Common cause must be found. And if we can’t unite when the gun is being held to our head while our children and heirs are held hostage in the name of tax reform, we are lost.

This forum is about getting rid of our little piece of hell….Tom Reed. Let’s focus.

I am in Ireland right now visiting my nephew and his wife. Neither are Irish citizens. They have a new baby who was born 6 weeks premature. Very expensive care. Under the Irish system they paid nothing. And they will pay nothing for any health care for their daughter for the first 6years of her life. In addition they get a stipend of about 120euros a month until she turns 18. I think that might be what I call ” family values”.